At the cutting edge

Mick Percival went from wood-chopping hobbyist to invincible, recordbreaking champion – now he gives spellbinding showground performances

Mick Percival is surrounded by what he loves – wood.

In the aptly-named village of Broad Oak stands his wood yard, where Mick lives in a self-built, timber-clad house, surrounded by hundreds of logs of all shapes and sizes. These all look the same to me but under Mick’s expert eye I’m educated on the grain, the rings, the texture and density and above all the potential for cutting … and cutting fast?

As well as a wood yard selling timber and firewood, this is the training ground for the acclaimed Dorset Axemen. This band of axewielding showmen was founded by Mick in 2014 and now they compete and exhibit at rural events and showgrounds up and down the country, demonstrating wood-cutting skills that date back to the hard-working lumberjacks in America and to centuries before. Retired from competing, Mick – still a giant of a man at 67 – now comperes these crowdpulling events where axemen split huge logs at break-neck speed using lethal axes.

Champion in waiting

More than 40 years as a competitive axeman might have taken its toll on Mick’s back and knees, yet amazingly he has escaped any serious injuries. When you consider he has had a razor-sharp axe only a few inches from his feet, flying between his legs as he balances on a block of wood, that’s either incredible luck or brilliant skill and concentration.

Mick says: ‘Timber demonstrations like undercutting and crosscutting are big in Australia and North America. I saw an Australian tour of woodchoppers and log axemen that came to the UK when I was young and it sowed the seed. I got my chance when I picked up my first axe when I was 23 – that same year I won my first novice competition in the UK.’

His competitive spirit was unleashed and he went to North America to compete in the world championships.

At the Devon County Show in 1996 he was crowned British Log

Mick Percival took the title of British Log Axing Champion in 1986, 89, 93, 96, 97 and 98. In 1996, he chopped through a 16-inch diameter log in 33.35 seconds, setting a then new championship record

Axing Champion for the sixth time.

‘I was fanatical,’ recalls Mick. ‘I took to it like a duck to water. I’d work in the woods all day felling trees, using chainsaws, then come home and practise, practise, practise. It’s all about getting your eye in and mastering the technique.’

Mick became invincible so the championship had to introduce a handicap system: ’The more you win, the higher your handicap. My opponent would start chopping on the count of three and I would start 33 seconds late. I still managed to win most of the time.’ Mick smiles. His gleaming axes are shipped from New Zealand and Australia and his biggest regret is that he never went and lived down under. ‘I kick myself now. My uncle emigrated as a £10 Pom in the 1960s. I should have gone back with him when he visited.’ Mick’s first axe was bought by that very uncle – who simply popped into his local hardware shop. In Australia, among the nuts and bolts of everyday DIY, you can buy competition axes. ‘He sawed the handle off, wrapped it up and sent it over. I made my own handle, grinding it out on a sandstone wheel.’ He may regret not emigrating, but Mick doesn’t regret starting the Dorset Axemen. ‘I knew I needed to train younger men so I spent the winter of 2013 taking seven of them, all in their late twenties, through their paces. In 2014, we exhibited at a few local shows and have never looked back. We’ve been to Northern Ireland and Scotland. This year we’ve already done seven shows.’

And how does an axeman unwind? ‘The adrenalin really pumps when you’re competing. I still love that buzz at the shows. I like to relax with a cider in the wooden bar I built at the back of my house – I call it the Notty Oak! I love to sit and watch all the wildlife. I’ve spent most of my life outdoors. I could never live in a town or city.’ dorsetaxemen.com

• See the Dorset Axemen in action in their first ever appearance at the Dorset County Show on 2nd and 3rd September.

Two-man saws were known to the ancient Romans, but first became common in Europe in the mid-15th century. Known colloquially as a Misery Whip, they are up to 16 feet long and designed to cut in both directions –careful tooth design is necessary to clear the sawdust during the cut.

Quick fire questions:

A-lister Notty Oak guests?

Jeremy Clarkson – I know he can have his moments, but can’t we all? – and the Duke of Edinburgh. I met him at The Royal Welsh Show. He seemed really interested in our display.

Book by your bedside? None! But when I’ve been hiding in my bar and people ask where I’ve been, I say I’ve been out the back with Mr Crabtree’s Book of Fishing!

Best and worst wood to cut?

Poplar is my favourite. It’s the most even and it’s the cheapest to buy! It’s a crisp wood, which you need for a clean cut.

Elm and spruce are my least favourite – the pin knots bend axes for a pastime!

All images by kind

Reynolds Stone: Dorset’s legendary engraver

Our local church in Winterborne Tomson boasts a plaque engraved by Reynolds Stone in memory of AR Powys – the architect who was responsible for saving it from ruin in the 1920s. The distinctive style of engraving always impressed me, but I only paid more attention when my wife visited the house and garden at Litton Cheney where Stone lived for well over 20 years until his death. She spoke of its magical and ethereal qualities, and the beautiful unspoiled countryside of the Bride valley surrounding the house that had clearly so inspired him. Named after his ancestor, the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, Stone spent his childhood in Bridport, and was educated at Eton, where his father taught. He went on to Magdalene

College, Cambridge, where he read history. With no clear idea about a career, he drifted into a two-year apprenticeship at the Cambridge University Press, where he was taught to appreciate letter design. An accidental meeting with Eric Gill led him to wood engraving and, after a spell at another printing firm, he became a freelance wood engraver, astonishingly without formal training.

A hidden fame

He married photographer Janet Woods in 1938 and in WW2 worked as an aerial photographic interpreter for the RAF. In 1953 the couple moved to the Old Rectory at Litton Cheney in West Dorset. His work as an engraver and his expertise in lettering brought him many commissions – and considerable success – with a broad range of clients.

Reynolds’ designs were everywhere in post-war Britain: many have observed that you may not know his name, but you have certainly seen his designs. If you travel with a UK passport you would have seen his royal coat of arms. He engraved the Royal Arms for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 and the official coat of arms for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

If you read the Times before 2010 you would be familiar with his masthead clock face design – and you might have paid for it with a £5 note in the 1960s that was designed by him too (below). The distinctive Dolcis shoe shop sign was created by him. He carved many remarkable memorials in stone, including those to Winston Churchill and TS Eliot, and for Westminster Abbey to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Reynolds Stone’s forte was white line lettering. Interestingly, unlike many of his contemporaries, the war did not change his approach to design.

He engraved dozens of bookplates (for Benjamin Britten and Hugh Trevor-Roper among others), most with the flowing Italianate swirls and flourishes that were distinctively his style. Engraving wood blocks is not easy, but Stone dismissed the difficulty, observing: ‘It’s rather like rowing. You have to put the oar in at the right angle.’ His work depicted the countryside, with its woods, glades, churchyards and ruins. His daughter Emma said: ‘The [Dorset] landscape seemed to suit his vision – the soft rounded hills and secret valleys, the lush greens, and perhaps above all the trees which feature so prominently in his engravings’. Reynolds was partly inspired by Samuel Palmer, and was certainly no modernist. Among his best regarded work was his set of engravings, The Old Rectory, published in 1976. He illustrated many books, such as Herman Melville’s Omoo.

Sylvia Townsend Warner, another famous Dorset resident, wrote poems to complement a collection of his wood engravings called Boxwood. In his later years he illustrated A Year of Birds, a book of poetry by his friend Irish Murdoch. He also designed typefaces, including Minerva and one named after his wife, Janet. His skills were much in demand. Penguin’s head of typography Hans Schmoller said: ‘he might almost be described as the Engraver Royal’. His prodigious output included writing – he wrote regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and The Listener – and he was also an accomplished watercolourist.

An eclectic society

The Stones’ home attracted many distinguished literary and artistic figures. Kenneth Clark, John and Myfanwy Piper and John Bayley were special friends, and Benjamin Britten, Freya Stark and John Betjeman were regular visitors. A photograph taken at

Little Cheney of the Admiral of the Fleet Charles Lambe playing a duet with painter John Nash reflects the eclectic company the Stones kept. His Dorset garden was a particular inspiration. His son Humphrey said in his 2019 memoir, Reynolds Stone, (Dovecote Press) that the ‘magical garden became his whole world. Here he could find the necessary solitude to pursue perfection in all he did.’

Reynolds had a protective passion for woods and wild things – never picking a wild flower and avoiding daisies when he mowed the lawn.

In her memorial address, Iris Murdoch said: ‘Good art shows us reality, which we too rarely see because it is veiled by our selfish cares, anxiety, vanity, pretension. Reynolds as artist, and as man, was a totally unpretentious being. His work, seemingly simple, gives us that shock of beauty which shows how close, how in a sense ordinary, are the marvels of the world”.

Reynolds Stone, who died in 1979, was awarded the CBE in 1953. His work survives in the timeless appeal of his designs.